With all the rabid anticipation surrounding the PlayStation 3, it may sadden
many of you to hear that Japan will not be
the only territory that will face a cut in its launch numbers.

According to a GameSpot report, North
American retailer GameStop (who also runs EB Games) has received a launch
allocation that is less than its number of pre-orders.

On October 10, GameStop took PlayStation 3
pre-orders, which sold out nationwide within minutes. Most stores limited
pre-orders to eight units, which was based on original Sony estimates on
availability.

Now, it appears that many GameStop stores will be unable to honor its "launch
day" pre-orders. A GameStop representative confirmed this news, but had no idea
as to the extent of the supply shortfall.

"We are beginning to notify our customers that our initial shipment of PS3
systems will not be what we expected," the representative said. "As this is not
an ideal situation, we are asking employees to wait to purchase systems until
the second shipment. We are anticipating having systems to cover reservations
before Christmas."

Customers with PS3 pre-orders from GameStop can expect to be contacted by
phone shortly to confirm the status of their reservation. Those who will be left
out of the initial round on launch day will be given a consolation item of a
free used game or DVD of choice valued at $19.99 or less.

This development will have a ripple effect on those who have sold their
pre-orders on eBay with the condition that the item will ship on launch day.
Many eBay bidders will be very unhappy to learn that the thousands
of dollars they spent on a launch-day PS3 will be facing delays.

Update: Analyst Colin Sebastian expects less PS3's on launch day than originally announced by Sony. He says:

"We expect Sony to deliver 150-200k units to stores in the United
States for the launch; consumers without pre-orders may find it
difficult to locate an available system. We estimate sales of
approximately 750k PS3s domestically by year-end. We expect a more
robust launch from Nintendo, with at least 1.2 million units sold in
the U.S. and up to four million units shipped worldwide by year-end."

I understand how some of you are quite sensitive to any negativity surrounding the PS3, so I apologize if you were mislead by this morning's headline.

To be clear, it read "PS3 U.S. Launch Numbers Cut," which could lead some of you to feel that it was indication from SCEA. If you read the article summary, then it should have cleared up the issue, but article summaries are not displayed for all our news items on the front page.

The headline has been changed to address the confusion and to add a bit more depth into the story with the analyst's estimates.

If any of you feel that we have any biases against PlayStation 3, then you are certainly in error. We're big supporters of new technology of all sorts, and we report on everything of interest. Sony's been in the spotlight recently, and has been facing several challenges. We would be doing our readers a disservice if we chose not to call them as we see them.

If you still disagree with me on any of this, I invite you to discuss this with me personally either late this Thursday night or very early Friday morning at a PlayStation 3 lineup/campout. Location will be announced shortly.